242 Breeding of the Great-Tit in Captivity. 



the feeding of his oil -spring. For the first day or two he 

 niei'el^ flew to the entrance hole and only lialf disappeared, his 

 tail at any rate always being visible; as the log was quilie 

 y inches deep it was obvious that he was only "handing" the 

 food to his mate, who in her turn fed the young she was brood- 

 ing. 



This order of things, however, gradually changed, for 

 as the hen left the nest more and more frequently to help the 

 male in collecting food, the latter took the opportunity of 

 exploring the depth of the nursery, and feeding the chicks 

 himself. During the whole time he did by far the greater 

 share of foraging, and was a (model which many a oock of more 

 peaceful and better tempered species might well copy. 



I was so struck by his devotion that on June 3rd I 

 opened the door of the aviary and stood by with my heart in 

 my mouth. He hopped out and then flew straight out of sight. 

 " Good-bye," thought 1, kicking myself metaphorically for my 

 trustfulness. JMot for long was I kept in suspense, for a few 

 minutes later I heard his call note in a neighlx)uring tree, 

 and down he swooped on to the roof of the aviary. He had 

 a little dilllculty in finding his way in, but once this dilliculty 

 was overcome he had no further trouble; his mate soon followed 

 him but was not quite so quick in finding the aviary door.. 

 After an hour of their liberty 1 took the opportunity of both 

 birdc; being in the aviary together, to close the' door for the, 

 night. 



On several occasions after this I let the birds out to 

 forage for themselves, but obviously no insect provided by 

 nature is so pleasing as the mealworm; both birds, but 

 especially the male, followed me, and other members of the 

 household, all over the garden, in the hope of getting the 

 longed-for morsel. So insistent did the male become that we 

 could call him from the aviary to the house, quite 30 yards, 

 and he would come into a roomful of strangers, hop on to a 

 chair and help himself to mealworms placed there in a dish. 



1 could never quite persuade him to take food from 

 my hand, but he would help himself if I dropped the bait 

 at my feet, or even on to my boo,t.. 



On June 9th, the young were well quilled, but still 

 showed a good deal of down on heads and back. 



